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Ancient roads
The first reference we have to any road is in the Charter of 972, which
records on Yardley's south boundary Leommannincgweg, the way of Leomann's
folk. This is believed to be the Stratford Road, or at least that part of it
which crosses the flat Solihull Plateau through Hall Green, winding between
tributary valley heads. There would be a ridgeway between Cole and Spark,
which was probably the west bound of Greet's first field, the second being
cleared later. When Greet Mill was built to grind the produce of the fields,
the gravelly shallows usually to be found below the dams would become a
favoured ford, with a well-used track down to it from Sparkhill and Hall
Green. In time this was to be the route by which the hides and timber of
Arden went to Birmingham and Black Country coal and iron went to Arden, a
regional highway. Greet Mill Ford was to claim horses and men when crossings
were attempted during flood: Roger Fullard was the first victim to be
recorded in 1275.
The Warwick Road followed a much more difficult route, and it is not
surprising that the Stratford Road (not so called until the Avon Navigation
made an inland port of Shakespeare's town) was the preferred route to the
shire capital as far south as Hockley Heath. The Warwick Road starts at
Spark Green on the drift which the Stratford Road is able to use for most of
its way across Yardley, but beyond Cole the steep slope is on uncapped clay.
This stretch, and the valley of Tyseley Brook beyond, must have been
practically impassable in and after wet weather. Beside the Turnpike road of
1725-6 maps show a quarter-mile strip sixty yards wide going over the ridge
east of Manor Farm. This was certainly the holloway worn by feet, hooves,
and wheels in the wet clay. There was a worn way on the Stratford Road where
it climbs towards the Council House. When the Turnpike was made alongside -
and presumably before the No-Man's Land strip could be taken in by the owner
of the adjacent land - two squatters' huts were thrown up in it. (See the
18-19th centuries map) By the ancient law of Arden they were permitted to
stay and enclose a patch.
It is probable that all the lanes shown on the first O. S. Map (c.1820) were
in existence by the later Middle Ages. They and their former names appear on
the appropriate map herein. As Formans Road crosses clay, a furlong of river
silt, then clay again, its ancient name 'Foulmore Lane' is justified; if a
way across the valley there had not been essential, it would have been
abandoned as unusable!
Ancient buildings
Except for Hay Hall, which is 15th century half-timbered with
Stuart brick encasing, there are no buildings anywhere in our district more
than 250 years old. The Manor House of Greet, not to be confused with the
later Greet House, stood on a moat platform beside the early 20th
century Greet Inn. It was originally a close-timbered hall like the Trust
School in Yardley Village. Whether it was rebuilt by Humphrey Greswold or
not in Blakesley Hall style, it was certainly rebuilt in later Georgian
times, being known thereafter as Manor Farm. Manor Farm Road, made when the
buildings were demolished, commemorates them. Across the highway was a
Stuart mansion, known in its last years of decay, the 1920s, as 'The Miser's
House'. Other houses stood about the junction with Weston Lane, for this was
the hamlet of Greet; among them were the 'Blew Ball' inn of 1741, and the
'Swan' near the bridge, of 1756. At about that time Greet House was built on
the gravelly summit nearby: it survived until the decade following World War
One.
To the east were Tyseley Grange, demolished in 1967, a Stuart brick and tile
house much altered and enlarged about 1860, and Tyseley Farm. This was a
group of brick buildings, probably Georgian, built beside the moat of the
ancient farmhouse. South was Shaftmoor, a three-gabled half-timbered
farmhouse of the 16th century. Greswold property, it was the home
of the Steedmans for two centuries before its demolition in 1910. Nearby was
Greet Mill Hill Farm, a low 18th century house with outbuildings. One of
these, a barn of 1850, survived the demolition of a century later, and is
used as a store by a timber merchant.
In a site between Grove and Greswolde Roads stood (until 1896 when the
Freehold Land Society bought the estate) Grove Farm. An earlier building on
or near the spot was Fulford (Foul Ford) Hall. Latterly home of the Izods,
Grove Farm was 15th century and Stuart half-timbering, much added
to and patched, interesting rather than attractive. Woodlands Farm nearby
lasted a few years longer. Showell Green House was an undistinguished
Georgian mansion, latterly a hospital annexe. It stood on Showell Green Lane
north of Philip Sidney Road until replaced by a row of 'town houses' a
decade or so ago. In 1978 Showellhurst, a shuttered Regency mansion nearly
opposite, was a regretted loss. Up the lane are Yew Tree Cottage and part of
No. 123 which are early 19th century, and on Yardley Wood Road is
'The Firs' of about 1840. A recent development on the remnant of Showell
Green has incorporated a row of cottages of mid-19th century
date.
Shrubbery Farm, latterly Sparkhill Nursery, was a large group of brick
buildings on three sides of a yard. Its site, between Ivor and Esme Roads,
is now overbuilt. Sparkhill Farm, lying back from the Stratford Road
opposite Baker Street, lasted until the 1880s. Sparkhill House and its
outbuildings still stand at the end of Showell Green Lane, embedded in a row
of shops. They were built in the late 1890s, a half-century after the
house.
The 'Mermaid' inn before its rebuilding in the 1880s was a three-storey
house of about 1740, with a farmhouse alongside. The corner towers were
destroyed in the blitz, but the old carved sign was restored and reset. On
the Warwick Road were Rose Cottage opposite St. John's Road, and Greet Farm.
With 115 acres on both sides of the highway and the river, this was one of
the largest farms hereabout, and its lush meadows must have produced fine
livestock. The farm buildings stood until the 1880's when Percy Road was
cut, and Greet School was built on the site a few years later. James Place
on Avon Street (1856), Perseverance Place nearby (1870), and Somersault and
Coleman Cottages (1869-70) on Baker Street, have been incorporated into
terraces of a decade or so later.
Watermills
Greet Mill was sited so as to take advantage of a small break of slope in
the river bed. The Cole was ponded behind an earthen bank in or before 1261,
and a mill continued in use there until about 1840. This was the manorial
mill of Greet, grinding corn from the great fields. During the Civil War and
later it also engaged in blade-edging. In 1775 Greet Mill was advertised as
a 'new-erected water corn mill with a regular supply of water, adjacent to
the turnpike road'. An estate of 75 acres was attached. The new building
stood above a brick culvert in which one or more breast-shot wheels were
set. Excess water fell over the weir and a side-race, the highway crossing
on two humped bridges. After steel-rolling in its last years, Greet Mill
went out of use, the pool was drained, and the buildings were demolished and
forgotten - until excavation of a new central channel for the Cole in 1913
disclosed the culvert. Long-buried brickwork from the mill, with material
from the old bridges, filled the former channels, and a wide balustraded
bridge was built to take tramlines. With the demolition of the farm, even
the name of Greet Mill Hill has gone out of use.
At the confluence
of the Cole and the Tyseley Brook a mill is shown on Beighton's map of 1725.
River works have destroyed any evidence hereabout, and no field-names
survive as they do elsewhere to confirm its existence. Downstream was Hay
Mill, medieval property of Hay Hall. Was there a mill on the Spark at
Danford ? Again, there is no evidence. Full details of all Cole mills are in
my 'Watermills of the Cole and Blythe Valleys'.
Introduction
Preface
Relief and drainage, geology, and the natural
landscape
First footers and Anglo-Saxon
settlement
The manor of Yardley, the boundaries
of Yardley, and the 'Manor' of Greet
Ancient roads, ancient buildings, and watermills
Turnpike roads, bridges, and administration
Public transport
Enclosures
Urbanisation, and amenities and services
Churches, schools, and commerce and industry
Between the Wars and since, and references
Maps |
